How I'm thinking about our house, transportation, food and waste, to minimize environmental impact, while improving quality of life and having fun.

02/03/2013

Zero Net Energy Homes Online Course starts March 11th

The Fall 2012 Zero Net Energy Homes online course had 50 students and was a great learning experience! Brian Hayden of Heatspring wrote about it here. We’re doing it again starting March 11th, the link is here. It's a packed 10 weeks, and includes a bunch of Excel calculators so folks can do a simple heat loss; calculate frame assembly thermal bridges; estimate hot water energy requirements; calculate the solar gain through the glazing; and do a simple annual energy calculation in order to size the PV system. In the videos I cover energy, heat transfer, moisture, thermal bridges, superinsulated construction, ventilation and heating/cooling, DHW, solar thermal and solar electricity. A course syllabus with the videos, reading, resources, and homework is here. As a bonus, enrolling in the course includes a membership in NESEA, and discounted admission to BE 2013 (I hope to see you there!)

http://nesea.cammpus.com/courses/zero-net-energy-homes--online

From participants:

“I would just like to take this moment of enthusiasm and express how terrific I think this course is.”

Wayne (architect)

“These calculators are great. The ability to tweak a couple of factors and see the whole system impact is outstanding. I feel like these are great tools to "nudge" clients towards better performing buildings as we can attach dollar amounts to heat loss....”

Bryan (design/builder)

“The quality of teaching in your course is amazing, every word choice, how clearly the ideas are outlined, the various calculators are incredible. I'm only on week 2 and I can't believe how much I've learned.”

Lucy (homeowner doing a Deep Energy Retrofit)

“Both NESEA and Marc have given me a tremendous leg up in my work, shortening my learning curve by months if not years in some areas.”